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Province pledges $1 billion to Ring of Fire

The provincial government says it’s prepared to pump up to $1 billion into all-season access to the mineral-rich Ring of Fire deposit in Northern Ontario — provided Ottawa matches the funding.

Calling the $60 billion site Canada’s next great mining development, Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle announced Monday that the funding would go toward a much-needed transportation and power corridor to the remote site located in the James Bay lowlands.

“The Ring of Fire represents one of the most significant mineral regions in the province, and includes the largest deposit of chromite ever discovered in North America,” said Gravelle.

He added that mine development will create thousands of jobs for generations to come and boost Northern Ontario’s struggling economy.

While a Toronto-based company poised to open a nickel mine in the Ring called the potential financing a “vital milestone” to development, critics called it part of the Liberal government’s pre-election spending spree that comes just days before the Ontario budget is announced.

“This commitment can provide the necessary funding for construction of a shared road and power corridor that will benefit remote First Nations communities and our Eagle’s Nest Mine, which will be the first mine developed in the Ring of Fire,” said Noront Resources Ltd. chief executive Alan Coutts.

But Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Norm Miller, PC critic for northern development and mines, said it raises more questions than answers on how to tap into the mining region — particularly whether the government favours either an east-west road or the north-south route proposed by area mining companies.

And he pointed out the money won’t surface without a financial commitment from the federal government.

“The $1 billion is contingent on Ottawa matching the funds. The money will flow once they come to the table,” a spokesperson in Ontario Minister of Finance Charles Sousa’s office confirmed in an email Monday after the announcement was made in Thunder Bay.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford made no commitment to the Ring of Fire in a statement Monday, reiterating that the province should apply to Ottawa’s new Building Canada Fund for more funds.

“We welcome Ontario’s interest in the Ring of Fire,” he said.

“The province is responsible for prioritizing projects they submit to our government. We have always been clear that if the province identifies the Ring of Fire as a priority, Economic Action Plan 2013 includes over $53 billion for provincial and municipal infrastructure,” Rickford stated.

The province has maintained that Ottawa should be as actively involved in the Ring of Fire’s development as it has been for other projects, such as the development of the Alberta oilsands.

“We are looking to the federal government to match our commitment of $1 billion to unleash the Ring of Fire so that we can seize this tremendous economic opportunity of national importance,” Sousa said in a statement.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce estimates that the project could generate $9.4 billion in new economic activity over the next decade and support 5,500 jobs a year.

But the lack of a transportation route has been a major barrier to developing the area, located 540 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, which U.S.-based mining giant Cliffs Natural Resources cited as the reason it pulled out of a $3 billion mine project last November.

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